Why It’s Important to Have a Backup Plan
Last week I received a panic phone call from a person whose home computer wouldn’t start. The hard drive had crashed and all the data was lost. None of his data was backed up.
I have written many times on the importance of having a backup strategy, both onsite and cloud based.
Your documents, pictures, music, videos, etc, that are stored in your computer are important to you. Do you have a backup system? Here are some reasons you should be backing up your data.
– What if your computer crashes and you can’t start it.
– Your home/office burns down
– Your computer has been stolen
– You left the computer in a restaurant, hotel, etc.
– Coffee, soda or other liquid has been spilled on the keyboard of your laptop
– The computer has been dropped
– A virus has wiped out the hard drive
– Malware, short for malicious software, has permitted someone to infiltrate your computer system without your consent
– You have inadvertently erased an important file.
– Someone else who uses your computer has deleted files
The list goes on and on. Before disaster strikes, make sure you are backing up ALL your important data onto an external hard drive and explore many of the online backup options that are available.
A popular cloud based backup service is CrashPlan, however a review of all the major services can be read HERE.
DO YOU HAVE A BACKUP PLAN?
Last week, one of my computers died! Would not start up, hard drive wiped out, all documents, pictures, videos gone.
Fortunately, my backup strategy saved the day. Although having to replace the computer was a bummer, recovering all the data was a snap. Why? Because I had an external hard drive attached to the computer and had it set to backup the computer daily. Second, I had the data backed up “in the cloud.”
There are a number of web based services available for backing up your data (documents, pictures, etc.) in the cloud. Why is it important to backup your data offsite? Well, If there is a fire or robbery, just having an external hard drive onsite will not be enough if it is stolen, destroyed, of becomes corrupted.
In my case, all I did was connect the external hard drive to a new computer and restored the data.
In this week’s Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg wrote an interesting article about a few such online services for file sharing and backup.
If you don’t have a backup plan in place, I encourage you to do so ASAP.
If you need assistance in determining the best plan for you, give me a call at 917 921-4518 or e-mail me at jblue@bluetutor.com for a FREE telephone consultation.
Also, below is a link to my BlogTalkRadio site which contains archives of my weekly programs where I discuss the relevant technology issues of the day.